Seven killed as protests against film spread in Mideast

At least seven people died yesterday as angry demonstrations against an anti-Islam film spread to their widest extent yet around the Middle East and other Muslim countries. Protesters smashed into the German Embassy in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and set part of it on fire and climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, waving an Islamist banner.

Tunisia’s official news agency said two people died and 29 others injured in protests outside the U.S. Embassy in Tunis.

Three deaths were recorded in Sudan and one each in Egypt and Lebanon bringing the toll to seven at press time.

The Tunisia State news agency-TAP- said both people killed were demonstrators, while the injured include protestors and police.

Pope Benedict XVI appealed for peace and reconciliation among religions same day as the violence spilled over into Lebanon within hours of his arrival in the tumultuous region.

The pope flew into Lebanon for a three-day visit despite the recent unrest — including civil war in Syria, a mob attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya, and a string of violent protests across the Middle East stemming from the film, produced in the United States, which insults Islam.

“I have come to Lebanon as a pilgrim of peace,” the 85-year-old pope said upon arrival in Beirut, speaking under a canopy at the airport on a sultry afternoon. “As a friend of God and as a friend of men.”

He denounced religious fundamentalism, calling it “a falsification of religion.”

The crowd at the pope’s arrival was small as security kept most people away from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, which is named after a former prime minister who was assassinated in a 2005 bombing that some blame on the regime in Syria.

The pontiff was welcomed by top leaders, including the Lebanese president, prime minister and parliament speaker, as well as Christian and Muslim religious leaders. Cannons fired a 21-shots salute for the pope.

“Let me assure you that I pray especially for the many people who suffer in this region,” he said.

But just hours after the pope arrived, violence erupted in northern Lebanon over the film “Innocence of Muslims.”

es the Prophet Muhammad, portraying him as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester.

According to Lebanese security officials, a crowd angry over the film set fire to a KFC and a Hardee’s restaurant in the port city of Tripoli, 85 kilometers north of Beirut, sparking clashes with police. Police then opened fire, killing one of the attackers, the officials said.

At least 25 people were wounded in the melee, including 18 police who were hit with stones and glass. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Earlier Friday, speaking to reporters aboard his plane, the pope said he never considered canceling the trip for security reasons, adding that “no one ever advised (me) to renounce this trip and personally, I have never considered this.”

Protests were held in cities from Tunisia to Pakistan after the Jumat prayers, where many clerics in their mosque sermons called on congregations to defend their faith, denouncing obscure movie produced in the United States that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad.

The spread of protests comes after attacks earlier this week on the U.S. Embassies in Cairo and the Yemeni capital Sanaa and on a U.S. consulate in Libya, where the ambassador and three other Americans were killed.

After standing aside earlier this week in the face of protesters, security forces in Yemen and Egypt fired tear gas and clashed with protesters yesterday to keep them away from U.S. embassies.

Egypt president, Mohammed Morsi, went on state TV and urged Muslims to protect foreign diplomatic missions — his first direct public move to contain protests.

“It is required by our religion to protect our guests and their homes and places of work,” he said. He also condemned the killing of the American ambassador in Libya, saying it was unacceptable in Islam. “To God, attacking a person is bigger than an attack on the Kaaba,” he said, referring to Islam’s holiest site in Mecca.

His speech was an apparent attempt to repair strained relations with the United States, which was angered by his slow response to Tuesday night’s assault on the embassy in Cairo. Police did nothing to stop protesters from climbing over the embassy walls, and Morsi